1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to novel organic compounds, and more particularly it relates to novel ester compounds useful as a component for liquid crystal materials.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known, liquid crystalline compounds have been used for various display means, utilizing the dielectric anisotropy and the refractive anisotropy in their liquid crystalline phases. These display means include liquid crystal display elements employing the electro-optic effect of liquid crystals, those the thermo-optic effect of liquid crystals, those employing other optic effects of liquid crystals, etc., and conjointly with technical advances in electronics, a large number of liquid crystal compounds have been used for liquid crystal display elements having applied electric field effects, such as twisted nematic effect, guest-host effect, etc.
As to these liquid crystal materials, there is no single compound which endures practical use as regards various characteristics such as mesomorphic range, operating voltage, response performance, etc.; hence, at present, several kinds of liquid crystal compounds or non-liquid crystal compounds have been blended together to obtain materials which are endurable to practical use.
Heretofore, among p-substituted phenyl esters of benzoic acid, p-substituted benzoic acids, cyclohexane-carboxylic acid, 4-substituted cyclohexane-1-carboxylic acids, etc., many of such esters have been highly evaluated as materials for various liquid crystal display means, etc. utilizing their liquid crystalline properties.
However, p-substituted phenols as one of the raw materials for preparing the above esters are not readily available, and have been prepared from phenol via several reaction steps, and moreover the yield of the substituted phenols is notably reduced because of the specific reactivity of substituted benzenes; hence they are expensive raw materials.
The present inventors have made extensive research on ester compounds using as their raw material, substituted pyrimidinols in place of expensive p-substituted phenols, and as a result, have found that esters of 5-substituted pyrimidin-2-ols can be prepared with a high yield and are very useful as raw materials for liquid crystal elements.
The object of the present invention is to provide novel ester compounds which are applicable to similar uses to those of conventional phenyl esters and yet can be prepared with a much higher yield.